Tooth-brush.



L. C. STOCKTON.

TOOTH BRUSH. 7

APPLICATION FILED AUG. 12, 1912. RENEWED NOV. 12.1915.

1 9 1 89,505; Patented July 4, 1916.

3140a to c wane/00% 4 5 Gbl'ozuu I of Colorado, have invented certainuse in a number of forms.

- s'rATEs PATENT-Quince" LINCOLN c. s'rockron, or DENVER, cononmo.

room-Baum.

Specification of Letters latent.

' Patented July 4, 1916.

Application filed August 12, 1912, Serial 1%. 114,58). Renewed November12, ms. Serial m. 01,167.

To all whom it mayco'nccm:

Be it known that I, LINCOLN C. Sroon- TON, a citizen of the'UnitedStates, residing in the city and county pf Denver and State new anduseful Improvements in Tooth-Brushes and I do declare the following tobe a full, clear,

same, reference being had tothe accompany- I 'ing erence marked thereon,of this specification.

My invention relates to improvements in devices adapted for use incleansing the teeth and mouth. 7

The device may be employed either as a fountain brush or cleanser, orwithout the fountain attachment, asmay be desired.

An important feature of the device consists in the fact that it isadapted for use in cleansing the teeth on the inside, or the sideadjacent the oral cavity, which parts, are inaccessible so far as theuse of the ordinary brush, is concerned.

My improved construction is adapted for in the more complicated formthere is a fountain attachment, the handle of the device being hollowand in communication with a bulb adapted to be filled with liquid andfrom which the liquid may be handle and thence therethrough into thehead of the brush, which is provided with ducts which carry it to thebrush, or brushes, proper, of thedevice. In this-form of the device, asillustrated in the drawing, my improved cleanser is equipped with twoopposing brushes adapted to engage the teeth simultaneously onoppositesides, thus making it practically as easy to wash the teeth on bothsides as on one side only.

Almost every one who has used the ordinary toothbrush has undoubtedlydiscovered its lack of utilityfor use in cleansing the teeth on theinside adjacent the oral cavity, particularly the front teeth. With myimproved'device this operation is easily accomplish'ed whether twoopposing brushes are employed or only a single brush, the latter beingconnected with the bent extremity drawings, and to the characters ofref; which form a part of the device in such a manner that it isdischarged into the hollow 20, each oi'which is composed of a arrangedas to act upon the sideof the teeth embodiment thereof. .and exactdescription of the 1I1Vellt1OIl,'S\1Ch In this drawing: Figure llis asectional view taken throughmy improved device, which .1s illustrated asa fountain cleanser.

Fig. 2.is a top plan view of the same, or a view looking in thedirection of arrow 2, Fig. 1. Fig. 3 1s a perspective view of one "ofthe detachable cleansing members of my improved device, showing thebrush form thereof. Fig. e is a side. elevation of an"- other form of myimproved device, being that devoid of the fountain feature. Fig. 5 1s afragmentary view of the same, with the brush members removed. Fig. 6 isa side elevation of another'fo'rm of the device, namely, the form wherethe single brush onl is employed. Fig. is a detail view loo mg at theside of one of the brushes or cleansing devices showing the wedgesha.ed, dove-tailed groove. r 'l e same reference characters indicate thesame parts in all the views.

Referring first to Figs. 1 and 2: Let the numeral 5 designate the hollowhandle of the fountain form of the article, this handle being suitablyconnected with the head 6 oil the device, which consists of two arms 7.and 8 having ducts and leading to cavities 12 and 13, the communicationbetween the ducts and said cavities being normally. cut ofi' byballvalves 14 and 15 acted on by spiralsprings 16 and 17. From thecavities 12 and 13 a duct 18 leads through the brush-holders 19 to thebrushez.

set 0 9 and 10 passing therethrough bristles 21 and abristle-holdingmember 22.

These brushes are removable from the brush holding parts, the brushmembers and the adjacentparts of with coiiperating counterpart tonguesand the head being provided rooves. By virtue of this construction therushes may be readily removed head and new brushes substituted.Attention-is also called to the fact that cleansing from the devicesother than brushes-may be employed, I y

if desired, and under some circumstances nray be preferable to the brushform of cleansing device. As illustrated in the drawing, the head of thearticle has a limited adjustment by virtue of a sort of ball-andsocketjoint 23, the head having a ball extremity arranged at the junction ofthe two ducts 9 and 10, while the adjacent extremity of the hollowhandle is provided with a socket adapted to receive the ball portion ofthehead. "As will be seen, the connection illustrated in the drawingpermits a limited degree-of adjustment of the head-upon the handle, andfor this reason, under some circumstances, may be preferable, as itmakes it practicable to hold the handle at a number of different angleswithout changing the position of the head of the device. Inthis form-ofconstruction the head 6 of the device is connected with the handle by abolt 4.- which passes through the ball and socket members. As this boltis secured by a nut 3,

the head may be looked upon the fountain handle in any desired positionof adjustment. Connected with the hollow handle 5' as able manner, agasket 27 being employed to make a liquid-tight joint.

It will be understood that when the device is in use, in order tointroduce the necessary liquid into the mouth for cleansing pur- 86poses, assuming that the bulb 24 is filled and the hollow handle partlyfilled, as illustrated in the drawing-see Fig. 1,it is only necessary tograsp the hollow handle of the device and at the same time press uponthe bulb which is in engagement therewith. This will force the necessaryliquid into the handle for the purpose, and the liquid will be expelledfrom the hollow handle and delivered to the brush members 21.

The bayonet joint connection between the cap 26 and the outer extremityof the hollow handle is best illustrated in Fig. 2, in which the numeral28 designates the angular slot and the numeral 29 a pin engaging said,slot for forming the aforesaid joint.

In the form of construction shown in-Fi iand 5, let the numeral 30designate 51 8 handle of the device, which is plain. Connected with thishandle is an oval member 31 terminating at one extremity in abrushholder 32 and at the opposite extremity in a brush-holder 33 havingdove-tailed tongues 34 and 35 respectivel with which are con nectedbrushes 36 and 37 whose bases 38 and.

39 are provided with dove-tailed grooves whose shape is the counterpartof the'tongues 34 and 35, the said grooves of the brushes receiving thesaid tongues. As illustrated in the drawing, the brushes 36 and 87 areprovided with the usual bristles. It is evi- I dent, however, thatcleaning or cleansing deinto a curved member 41 which isbent-rearwa-rdly as shown at 42 terminating in a holder 43 having a.dove-tailed tongue 44 adapted to enter a groove of counterpart shapeformed in thebase 45 of a brush 46 having the usual bristles 47. In thisform of construction the brush is adapted to engage the inside of theteeth adjacent the oral cavity, or the side which is usuallynot actedupon when using brushes of ordinary construction.

It is preferred that the dove-tailed groove in the brush or cleansingmembers shall be slightly tapered from one;.e1i'd to the other, asillustrated in Fig. 7 in, order that as the cleansing members are aplied to the holders a wedging action shall tage place, thus making itpracticable to maintain the cleansing members upon the holders byfriction alone.

Fromthe foregoing description, the use and operation of my improvedconstruction will be readily understood.

In the fountain fo'rm of the device the opposing brushes are. applied tothe opposite, vertical sides of theteeth, and the liquid'in tity forcleansin purposes. This is easily brushes and to t e teeth in sufiicientquan-.

tity for cleansing purposes. This is easily accomplished by virtue ofthe arrangement of the bulb in suitable proximity to thehandle, which,at its outer extremity, merges dle whereby it is readily grasped by thehand.

In the form of construction shown in Figs. 4 and 5 the brush is appliedto the teeth in the same manner, but it is first dipped. in water orother liquid as in the case of the ordinary brush. This is also true ofthe form of con struction shown in Fig- 6, [except that in using thelatter, only the side of the teeth adjacent the oral cavity is acted onby the brush, or cleanser. In case cleansing devices other than brushesare employed, the use of the cleanser is precisely the same.

It should be understood that my improvement is more especiallyadvantageous in cleaning the front teeth on'the inside, which side oftheteeth in this particular part of the mouth is not easily accessibleto the ordinary brush, though the latter may, to some extent, beemployed in cleaning the inside of the teeth farther back in the mouth.But in front, where the ordinary brush is practically useless, mypresent improvement is highly advantageous, and in this relation its 1superiority over all other brushes or cleansers is most conspicuous. 7

Attention is called to the fact that the handle 5 of the device may beconnected with a faucet or other pressure source of liquid supply, 1nwhich event it will not be necessary to employ the bulb 24. inconnection with the fountain type of the device.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is:

A tooth brush having a hollow handle, a

head with tubular arms in communicationwith said handle, cleansingdevices arran ed in opposing relation at the ends of the tu ular arms,the cleansing devices having outlet ducts in communication with thepassages in the said arms, normally closed sprinfg-actuated valvescontrolling the passage 0 1 from the arms to the outlet ducts, and abulb mounted on the handle and in communication with the latter, saidbulb having suflicient fluid-ejecting force, when under pressure, tounseat the said valves.

In testimony whereof I afiix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

LINCOLN C. STOCKTON.

I Witnesses:

A. J. OBRIEN, 7 MAY CLEMENTS.

iquid

